Editing Zionism (section)

=== Racial conceptions of Jewish identity ===
{{main|Racial conceptions of Jewish identity in Zionism}}
In the late 19th century, amid attempts to apply science to notions of [[Race (human categorization)|race]], the founders of Zionism ([[Theodor Herzl]] and [[Max Nordau]], among others) sought to reformulate conceptions of [[Jewish identity|Jewishness]] in terms of [[racial identity]] and the [[scientific racism|"race science" of the time]]. They believed that this concept would allow them to build a new framework for collective Jewish identity,{{sfn|Avraham|2017|p=357}} and thought that biology might provide "proof" for the "ethnonational myth of common descent" from the biblical [[land of Israel]].{{sfn|Hirsch|2009|p=592}}{{sfn|Doron|1980|p=404}} Countering [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] claims that Jews were both aliens and a racially inferior people, these Zionists drew on and appropriated elements from various race theories,{{sfn|Hart|1999|p=271}}{{sfn|Avraham|2013|pp=355–357}}{{efn|"If anything, the first decades of Zionism bear out an affinity with some of the more unsavoury 'regenerative' discourses of the late nineteenth century, particularly Social Darwinism, eugenics, nationalism, and colonialism, precisely because Zionism – partly as a project of self-legitimacy – was both a Jewish response to and extension of these very same discourses." {{harv|Presner|2007|pp=1–23,4}}}} to argue that only a [[First Zionist Congress#Basel Program|home for the Jewish people]] could enable the physical regeneration of the Jewish people and a renaissance of pride in their ancient cultural traditions.{{sfn|Vogt|2015|pp=85–86}}

The contrasting [[Jewish assimilation|assimilationist viewpoint]] was that Jewishness consisted in an attachment to [[Judaism]] as a religion and culture. Both the [[Orthodox Judaism|orthodox]] and [[Reform Judaism|liberal]] establishments often rejected this idea.{{sfn|Efron|1994|pp=4,144–146}}{{sfn|Avraham|2013|p=358}}{{sfn|Falk|2017|pp=35–36}} Subsequently, Zionist and non-Zionist Jews vigorously debated aspects of this proposition in terms of the merits or otherwise of [[Jewish diaspora|diaspora life]]. While Zionism embarked on its project of social engineering in [[Mandatory Palestine]], [[Ethnic nationalism|ethnonationalist]] politics on the European continent strengthened and, by the 1930s, some [[History of the Jews in Germany|German Jews]], acting defensively, asserted Jewish collective rights by redefining Jews as a race after [[Nazism]] rose to power.{{sfn|Avraham|2013|pp=354–374,}} The [[Holocaust]]'s policies of [[Genocide|genocidal]] [[ethnic cleansing]] utterly discredited race as the lethal product of [[pseudoscience]].

With the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|establishment of Israel]] in 1948, the [[Gathering of Israel|"ingathering of the exiles"]], and the [[Law of Return]], the question of Jewish origins and biological unity came to assume particular importance during early nation building. Conscious of this, Israeli medical researchers and geneticists were careful to avoid any language that might resonate with racial ideas. Themes of "blood logic" or "race" have nevertheless been described as a recurrent feature of modern Jewish thought in both scholarship and popular belief.{{efn|"throughout all of the de-racializing stages of twentieth-century social thought, Jews have continued to invoke blood logic as a way of defining and maintaining group identity...'race' is a significant component not only of scholarly or academic modern Jewish thought, but also of popular or everyday Jewish thought. It is one of the building blocks of contemporary Jewish identity construction, even if there are many who would dispute the applicability of biological or racial categories to Jews." {{harv|Hart|2011|pp=xxxiv-xxxv}}}} Despite this, many aspects of the role of race in the formation of Zionist concepts of a Jewish identity were rarely addressed until recently.<ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Doron|1983|pp=170–171}}
| {{harvnb|Morris-Reich|2006|pp=1–2,4–5}}
| {{harvnb|Gelber|2000|p=133}}
| {{harvnb|Nicosia|2010|pp=1–2,6–8}}
| {{harvnb|Hart|2011|p=xxxiv}}
| {{harvnb|Avraham|2017|pp=172–173}}
| {{harvnb|Avraham|2013|p=356}}
}}</ref>

Questions of how political narratives impact the work of population genetics, and its connection to race, have a particular significance in [[Jewish history]] and [[Jewish culture|culture]].{{efn|"To be sure, 'Jewish genetics' is only one of many examples for the search of origins of today's population groups with the help of DNA analysis. Whether it is 'the origin of modern Japanese populations' ... the 'genetics of ancient Romans' ... or an analysis of the genomes from 'Bronze Age Bulgaria' ... to give only a few examples, ancient forefathers and -mothers are a fascinating topic for scientists as well as for the general public. In the case of 'Jewish genetics', however, scientific work can get easily politicized ... But rather than dealing with politicians and their use of scientific papers for populistic ends, this essay highlights, delineates, and contextualizes the ongoing debate between various geneticists and social scientists on two main points. One is whether or how narratives impact the work of the researchers. In our case, it is the association of modern Jews as the (biological) descendants of the biblical Hebrews or today's Cohanim as descendants of the biblical priestly caste. As the debate on the Khazars exemplifies, genetic research can be politically loaded. Scientific theories or research results about the origin of Ashkenazi Jews are used for political purposes – but interest in the topic also places the researchers into a context of ideology and identity politics, which is closely linked to real or perceived national interests ... The other point is the discussion about the danger that genetic studies on population groups reify race. Neither of these questions applies only to genetic research on Jews, but for Jews they have a special meaning that is rooted in Jewish history and culture." {{harv|Kohler|2022|pp=1–2}}.}} Genetic studies on the origins of modern Jews have been criticized as "being designed or interpreted in the framework of a 'Zionist narrative{{' "}} and as an [[Essentialism#Racial, cultural and strategic essentialism|essentialist approach]] to biology{{efn|name=Kohler8|"The extent to which today's human population genetics are compared to past theories of race varies greatly, and thus the emphasis on an inherent danger of racism. In the Jewish context, the genetic studies on collective Jewish ancestry are mainly criticized as being designed or interpreted in the framework of a 'Zionist narrative', as essentializing biology, or both" {{harv|Kohler|2022|p=8}}.}} in a similar manner to criticism of the [[Politics of archaeology in Israel and Palestine|interpretation of archaeology in the region]].{{efn|name=Weitz310|"A second critique of genetics research is one that has been made about archaeological evidence as well. Here too the evidence does not speak for itself: it has to be interpreted; and geneticists do not realize the extent to which their interpretations read into the evidence more than is really there." {{harv|Weitzman|2019|p=310}}}} According to Israeli historian of science Nurit Kirsh and Israeli geneticist [[Raphael Falk (geneticist)|Raphael Falk]], the interpretation of the genetic data has been unconsciously influenced by Zionism and [[anti-Zionism]].{{efn|name=Prainsack|"The biological dimension of Judaism, namely the debate about whether Judaism is 'only' a religion, or Jews are a 'people', a 'nation' or a 'race', has become central to both how Jews were thought of and to the ways in which they thought about themselves during modern times, as modern genetics was expected to both establish the determinants of 'Jewishness' and to find out whether particular individuals or groups fit into this category... As has been argued elsewhere (Prainsack 2007; Falk 2006; Kirsh 2003), the interpretation of the data on different Jewish 'ethnic' groups and their relatedness to one another as well as to non-Jewish neighbouring/hosting populations has always been influenced by political ideologies. While many Zionists favour a view of Jews as a distinct, non-European "ethnicity" that has remained relatively homogenous throughout history (see, for example, Cochran et al. 2006), during the 1950s and early 1960s Israeli geneticists found many genetic differences between the diverse Jewish groups gathering in Israel. Yet Kirsh (2003) argues that an unconscious internalisation of Zionist ideology by the Israeli geneticists of the time led them to emphasise points of similarity rather than points of difference between the studied groups, thereby in turn reinforcing Zionist convictions." {{harv|Prainsack|Hashiloni-Dolev|2009|p=410}}}} Falk wrote that every generation has witnessed efforts by both Zionist and non-Zionist Jews to seek a link between national and biological aspects of Jewish identity.{{efn|"In every generation there are still Zionists as well as non-Zionists who are not satisfied with the mental and social notions that bind Jews together, and who seek to find the link between the national and the biological aspects of being Jews." Footnote: An interesting aspect is that of orthodox-religious circles that seek support of the "biological" argument for the Jewishness (or for membership in the Ten Lost Tribes) of tribes and congregations all over the world. Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, the founder of the "Amishav" (Hebrew for "My People Return") organization and the author of the book Israel's Tribes, followed on his journeys "the footprints of forgotten Jewish communities, who lost their contact with the Jewish world... at the same time he also located tribes that have no biological relationship to the people of Israel but who want very much to join them" (Yair Sheleg, "All want to be Jewish", Haaretz, 17 September 1999, p. 27). In recent years, Rabbi Avichail "discovered" the tribe of Menasheh among the Koki, Mizo and Chin in the Manipur mountains at the border between India and Burma. In a TV program on "the search after the lost tribes", Hillel Halkin, a demographer of cultures, claimed that whereas the Jews of Ethiopia converted to Judaism during the Middle Ages and are not of ancient Jewish stock, the Koki, Mizo and Chin people are direct progeny of the Biblical tribe of Menasheh {{harv|Falk|2017|p=16}}.}}
{{undue weight inline|How significant is this last paragraph for a page about Zionism in general?|date=January 2025}}